


Quanta:  Six Odo/Quark Kisses

by phinnia



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 05:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15942713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phinnia/pseuds/phinnia
Summary: Thanks for reading. :)





	1. Chapter 1

_Quantum-multi-worlds theory states that there is more than one world out there.   Each timeline, each world is slightly different.   It could differ by something as slight as what you had for breakfast, or something as great as the winner of a planetary war._  
  
 _And in six of these timelines, Quark and Odo have a first kiss._  
  
  
  
The first first kiss (these are in no particular order) was that time that Odo trashed his quarters.  Quark went down there because sleep was more or less impossible with all that noise and he found Odo sitting in the middle of an utterly trashed room, moping like a teenager sulking over a lost bet.     And because Quark sometimes thought of himself as an idiot, he actually tried to stay and talk him out of his sulk.    
  
At least, that was the plan.  
  
Until he tripped.    
  
Well, it was _dark_ , and there was a lot of _stuff_ on the floor.     
  
Quark tripped over a piece of broken ... something … when he was leaning over to kiss Odo on the top of the head (like a _friend_ , like an _idiot_ , not like he really _wanted to_ ) and he fell on top of Odo and sent them both sprawling into the mess and suddenly he was on top of Odo and Odo was underneath him and their mouths were mashed together in a messy kiss and Quark whimpered into it and pinned Odo down as best he could, and Odo blinked even though he didn’t actually need to blink and then - this was the part that shocked Quark most of all, in retrospect - he actually kissed back, gently to begin with, and then harder, like he was actually hungry for something Quark had deep inside him and was just starting to realize what hunger was actually about.  
  
The next morning, Quark had a lot of cuts and bruises to explain to Bashir.   A _lot_ of cuts and bruises.   And a rather ridiculous smile he was trying not to show anybody.   And if Odo spent a little more time ’surveiling’ the bar, well, that was only reasonable, considering Quark’s mood.  
  
  
  
The second first kiss was just after Brunt’s Naussicans beat Quark up.  
  
Quark can barely remember this one - he was kind of hazy, drifting in and out of consciousness - and he couldn’t really see out of one of his eyes, so it’s kind of like a dream.   But he remembers Odo gently sweeping him up in his arms, and muttering curses at Brunt under his breath, and calling for Bashir.     
  
Then he feels Odo’s lips brush against his own, and that’s surprising enough that he opens his one still-working unblackened eye.  
  
“Don’t _die_ , you idiot.”   Odo says, almost fondly.  
  
“I’m not … dying.   Can’t kiss you … back …  with a split lip, though.”  Quark says, and then he passes out.  
  
He would have thought it was a dream, except that Odo was pacing by his bed in the infirmary when he woke up, pretending he was reading security reports while he was pacing, and because Quark opened his eyes first, he actually noticed Odo’s … vaguely-irked-with-a-hint-of-concern-expression hidden behind the security reports.     
  
“Did you kiss me before I fainted?”  Quark asks blearily.   “Or was that a really hot dream?”  
  
Odo looks at him over the PADD and sighs.  “Yes.  I did.”  
  
“Oh.   Good.”  
  
This was an unexpected answer.    “What do you mean, ‘good’?”  
  
Quark shrugs, and winces because his shoulder hurts.   “Because my really hot dreams have a way of not coming true, so … “   He makes a flourish with his hand to finish the sentence.   “Good.”   His tongue flicks out to check the state of his lips.   “You could kiss me again.   You know.  Convince me it wasn’t a really hot dream.”     He looks up at Odo with pleading eyes.   “I don’t have a split lip anymore.”  
  
The corners of Odo’s lips twitch upwards, and he sets the security report down on the bed, and he kisses Quark again.  This time Quark kisses him back, and it’s better - _much_ better.   Quark feels alive under his hands, under his mouth.    He gently caresses the curve of an ear and gets a shuddering moan in response, a twitch like a leaping fish in the water, and Odo’s never felt anything so _alive_.  _He’s_ never felt so alive.  
  



	2. Chapter 2

The third first kiss was the night after Arissa left.  
  
Odo comes into the bar looking more depressed than usual, and Quark, who has his sources, just pours him a drink and shoves it across the bar.  
  
“I didn’t order this.”   Odo says.  
  
“I know.”   Quark replies.   “Just drink it.”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“Kali’fal.  Just drink it.”  
  
“That’s Romulan ale, Quark, it’s not even legal in this sector -“  
  
“Odo.”  Quark puts his hand on Odo’s wrist.   “Just _shut up and drink it._ ”  
  
Odo drinks the ale.  It is dark, dark blue and it burns going down and his eyes sting and water and he coughs.   He looks down at the lights of the bar reflecting off of Quark’s nail polish, how it reflects from blue-green to turquoise to almost the same dark blue the ale was in the flickering light.     
  
Then Quark pours two drinks from the same bottle and takes one himself.    “To Arissa.”  
  
Odo sighs.   “That wasn’t actually her name.”  
  
“You’re ruining a perfectly good toast with facts.   To Arissa.”  
  
He sighs again and nods.  “To Arissa.”  
  
The second glass of Romulan ale goes down easier.  It doesn’t burn as much.     
  
Quark mixes a Black Hole for an Ensign that just came in, and that means he takes his hand off of Odo’s wrist, and Odo watches Quark behind the bar.    Quark as he wriggles, makes jokes, flirts with people of every gender and type, banters, mixes more drinks.     
  
Quark shoves another drink towards Odo.   Odo looks at him.   “I didn’t order this, either.”  
  
“I know you didn’t.   But since you’ve already started getting drunk, you might as well finish the job, right?”  
  
“What is this?”  He looks at it.  
  
“Saurian brandy.   Sisko’s favorite.”   Quark smiles at him.   “Drink up.”  
  
Odo downs it.  It’s not as strong as the kali’fal.   “No more Romulan ale?”  
  
“Are you _nuts_?   You don’t want to get drunk _that_ fast.   Two more shots of _that_ stuff, you’ll be on the floor.   Three, you’ll probably be back in your goo form again, which would be a good trick for you right now.”   Quark winks.   “Stick to the brandy.   And no singing.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Just trust me.  _No singing_.”  
  
  
Odo drinks the drinks that Quark gives him, none of which he orders, and then after his shift Quark walks him home.  
  
“Do people usually sing when they’re drunk?”  Odo asks blearily.    Right now, he just feels foggy, and he has something of a headache, and his tongue feels much too big for his mouth.    
  
“Ask O’Brien and Bashir about drunk singing.”   Quark replies with a grin, and then starts picking Odo’s lock.  
  
“I can … I can open the door.”  Odo protests.     
  
“So can I.”  Quark grins at him.  “And right now, probably more reliably than you.”  
  
The door swishes open.      
  
Odo stumbles inside.    “Well, aren’t you coming in?”  
  
“What?”     
  
“Well, you bought me all those drinks, the least I can do is invite you in.”  
  
Quark shrugs.   “Sure.”     
  
  
Odo sits down on the floor and tries to figure out if his tongue is actually bigger, or if it’s just an illusion.  
  
“What are you _doing_?”   Quark bends down and looks at him curiously.  
  
“My tongue.   It feels … larger than normal.   Is this a regular solid response to drunkenness?”  
  
Quark laughs and sits down in front of him.   “For hu-mans, yes.”  
  
“I never really understood tongues.   I know they’re necessary and all, I just don’t understand them.”  
  
Quark raises a browridge.   “Arissa didn’t show you what you can _do_ with your tongue?”  
  
“Oh?”  
  
“There are _lots_ of fun things you can do with your tongue.”   Quark murmurs.   “I can show you, if you want.”  
  
Odo thinks about this.   He thinks about Quark, and about his strange kindness, how he’s always flirting, trying to get Odo’s attention.     
  
“Sure.”  Odo breathes into Quark’s mouth.  
  
Quark kisses him deeply.   Quark tastes like whispers of kali’fal and sand peas and something else Odo can’t make out, something he tries to identify but can’t, no matter how much they kiss.  Ferengi tongues are long, longer than his own;  he can feel Quark licking the inside of his mouth and he wonders what that tongue would feel like on other parts of his body.  
  
Over the course of the night, Quark shows him how important tongues are.   And Quark’s tongue feels incredible, whereever he puts it.    They get absolutely no sleep and Broik has to do a double shift the next day and Odo ends up taking a day off, which never happens, and Jadzia comes by to see if he’s all right and comes in as he and Quark are arguing about whether root beer is actually a proper drink (Odo says yes, because it has bubbles, and Quark says no, because it’s sweet and disgusting) and she just sort of … stops, turns around and leaves.   But as she leaves, she’s smiling.  
  
  
The next time is on that class-L planet they were stuck on.  
  
Odo woke up to Quark’s snoring, which sounded like a ravaging targ and might have woken someone the next planet over had there been anyone on the next planet over to wake.     
  
How could anybody possibly sleep through that?      
  
Ferengi had … well, mates.    
  
Quark didn’t.     
  
Probably because of all that snoring, Odo thought acidly.     
  
Quark turned over, said ‘don’t touch my Maurader Mo action figures, Rom’ very clearly and continued snoring.  
  
And the talking in his sleep.    What are Maurader Mo action figures?  
  
Odo lay down on the cave floor again and stared at the top of the cave.   Very uninteresting.   No stalactites or anything.  Just grey rock.  
  
“… Odo …”  
  
He looks up.  “What?”  
  
Quark’s still asleep.  
  
“… kiss me … Odo?”  
  
Odo blinks.     
  
He’d never really thought about kissing Quark before now.     
  
What would it be like, kissing Quark?     
  
He could try.  
  
He could try and find out.  
  
He leans down and brushes his lips against Quark’s lips.  
  
It’s … nice, actually.  
  
Quark’s eyes fly open all of a sudden, and the kiss deepens, and Odo wraps his arms around Quark, and Quark wriggles against him - is that good?   Well, he doesn’t seem to be trying to get away, so it seems to be good - and then he breaks the kiss and … pinches his ear.     
  
“Ow.”   Quark says.  
  
“Why did you do that?”  Odo asks, mystified.  
  
“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.  Because I was dreaming about you kissing me, and then you were kissing me, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”  
  
Odo smiles slightly.   “You talk in your sleep.”     
  
Quark groans.   “Great.  _Still_?”  
  
“Don’t worry.   You didn’t say anything incriminating.”    Odo gets the urge to kiss Quark again, now that he’s awake, and so he does.   Quark is a better kisser awake than asleep, definitely.   He kisses feverishly, like he’s desperate, and there’s more of that wriggling, and that feels nice, too.   Good.   Really good.  
  
Maybe there’s other things he should try with Quark.  
  
After they get off this freezing planet, of course.  


	3. Chapter 3

The fifth first kiss was just after that first episode with Lwaxana Troi.  
  
Odo had just shaken down the Doptarian and was marching him away, and Quark was rubbing away the pain in his ear (she _did_ know just where it hurt, too) when he noticed a _look_ in her eyes that he knew from past experiences (a lot of which were his own) did not bode well for Odo.  
  
So he decided to intervene.  
  
“Hey, Odo.”  He shouted, striding across the bar.  “Aren’t you forgetting something?”  
  
“Am I?”  Odo turned around.  
  
Quark threw an arm around Odo’s neck, dragged Odo’s face down to his level, and kissed him soundly, firmly, in front of the entire bar.   He taps Odo’s lips with his tongue, gently, and Odo opens his mouth.   Their tongues tangle, and Odo pulls Quark closer to him, starts stroking his lobes, gently, very gently.  Quark keens, a high-pitched moan into Odo’s mouth, and they stagger and fall backwards against the doors.  
  
“Oh.”   Lwaxana shakes her head.   “How terribly disappointing.”  
  
Odo reaches out a tentacle to grab the Doptarian before he gets too far away, and then he wraps another one around Quark.     
  
“Back to my office.”   he says, but his tone isn’t as gruff as it usually is.      
  
“Why?”   Quark blinks, holding his wrists together.  
  
“I have a few … questions for you.”   The corner of Odo’s mouth quirks up a little bit.  
  
“Oh.”     
  
They walk back to Odo’s office.  
  
“You could strip-search me.”   Quark says, raising a browridge.  
  
“Hmmph.”   Odo says.  “Maybe later.”  
  
  
The last first kiss was just before Odo became a solid, when he had that disease, when he went back to the Founders to get himself healed.  
  
He was walking - limping, really - down the Promenade, with Bashir and Kira supporting him, one on each side, and Quark is watching him walk.     
  
Watching Odo’s barklike skin, watching him stagger.  
  
Bashir offers to clear the Promenade.     
  
Quark can’t just let him leave.  
  
Not like this.  
  
No.  
  
He runs out of the bar and almost tackles Odo sideways, into Bashir.  Kira’s about to argue with him, but Quark shoves her away and pulls Odo close to him, pulls his face down and kisses his bark skin and his lipless mouth.  It feels kind of like kissing a tree.  A very _startled_ tree.  
  
“You better come back.”  he whispers.  
  
Odo smiles.   The smile is slight and it looks painful, but it reaches his eyes, and Quark _knows_.   “I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
